Category: Research

NM EPSCoR is committed to the state of New Mexico, and we are no stranger to examining the effects of natural (or unnatural) disasters on water and the environment—for example, team members during our last grant were able to study the effects of the Las Conchas Fire on the Valles Caldera. This month, several people on the Uranium Team and the Geothermal Team have formed a collaboration among New Mexico Tech, University of New Mexico and New Mexico State University to research the long-term impact of the recent Animas River contamination from the Gold King Mine. Bonnie Frey, Uranium Team co-lead, wrote the following report about their experience.

A report from Chelsea, our Diversity Coordinator: I started off the summer with the largest group of STEM Advancement Program students to date - 14 students! They all spent a week together at New Mexico Tech then went their separate ways to their research sites in Albuquerque, Socorro, or Las Cruces. At the end of last month, their summer research concluded with presentations. Check out their presentation titles below:

Over the summer, two students participated in the NM EPSCoR Externship Program. The Externship Program is a research exchange program that allows New Mexico graduate students (with an existing assistantship) to spend a semester or summer doing research at a partnering New Mexico university or research facility. This report is from UNM PhD student John Roesgen about his summer at NMSU.

Four women either previously or currently involved in New Mexico EPSCoR projects were among 13 other women honored earlier this month as New Mexico Women of STEM. Diana Northrup taught the EPSCoR-funded Communicating Science class at UNM in Spring 2014; Lorie Liebrock was an exceptional participant in our previous grants; Phyllis Baca has worked with EPSCoR for several years and is involved in the current Energize New Mexico grant; and Jeri Timlin is a current team member of the Bioalgal Component.

Over the summer, two students participated in the NM EPSCoR Externship Program. The Externship Program is a research exchange program that allows New Mexico graduate students (with an existing assistantship) to spend a semester or summer doing research at a partnering New Mexico university or research facility. This report is from NMHU student Xu Wang about his summer at New Mexico Tech.

In early June, Laurel Saito of the University of Nevada, Reno spearheaded the WC-WAVE Interdisciplinary Modeling Course in Boise, Idaho. Boise State University welcomed students from Idaho, Nevada, and New Mexico for the course that was funded by the WC-WAVE grant. Boise State has a full report of the course up on their website—the following is an excerpt from that report, written by Kathleen Tuck.

Our STEM Advancement Program (STEMAP) welcomes 15 students to the NM EPSCoR community this week at New Mexico Tech. These students will be working for the next eight weeks on research at the main campuses of New Mexico State University, New Mexico Tech, and University of New Mexico.

DataONE welcomes the NM EPSCoR as the 28th Member Node to join the federation. NM EPSCoR and DataONE have a long history of collaboration. The development of a Tier 4 Member Node at EPSCoR enhances the partnership by providing another replication target for other Member Nodes in the federation and increasing visibility of NM EPSCoR’s holdings to a broader audience.

In early May, NM EPSCoR sponsored a Software Carpentry Workshop at UNM. Software Carpentry is a volunteer organization whose goal is to make scientists more productive, and their work more reliable, by teaching them basic computing skills. This example-driven two-day workshop taught core computing skills to help participants be more productive and effective, alternating short tutorials with hands-on practical exercises. Participants were encouraged to help one another and to apply what learned to their own research problems during the workshop.

This blog is a long time coming, but as most of you know, the 2015 All Hands Meeting took place on April 17, 2015. We had a packed house at the New Mexico Tech Fidel Center, and the day was spent collaborating and networking. The morning sessions helped the group examine implicit biases, and the afternoon sessions combined two components together to discuss progress in the project thus far as well as ideas for the future. The luncheon keynote was presented by NSF EPSCoR Program Officer Audrey Levine.